Just a quick query about the bsge centres. I see my consultant (who is head of my local bsge centre) privately in a different local hospital. In my experience the hospital the bsge centre is in is terrible and I'd much rather continue to be treated by him privately at my current hospital. If my condition worsens would I have to move hospitals? Or because it's the same team I'm seeing does it not matter? Hope that makes sense.

Having second op lap in just over a year on this coming Friday.

3 Replies

If your surgery has complex needs then it is possible for them to need to go to a main hospital where they have more tools at there disposal.. But I would be very surprised if this happened without a discussion with you first. X

Basically it is your choice whether you go privately or on the NHS and when it comes to needing surgeries this is going to depend on your financial resources or whether you are privately insured and can cover some of the cost that way. But a distinction has to be made between private and NHS treatment of endo especially when it comes to surgery for more severe endo. The NHS BSGE centres are required to have additional surgeons involved as necessary such as bowel and urology surgeons. But when operating privately the surgeon is their own independent self unless he/she is part of a private endo centre that follows the same guidelines. As far as I am aware there is only one accredited private centre on the list (that is entirely private) and perhaps a couple of BSGE centres with named gynaecologists who are involved in their own private centres that are not in themselves on the list but which follow the same criteria of requiring a multidisciplinary team. Oxford is such a case where a gynaecologist in the BSGE centre heads the private Oxford centre. The danger comes when a gynaecologist named at a BSGE centre does private surgery without the backing of an independent centre and there are many such surgeons on the list who are potentially doing this - carrying out the whole of complex surgeries themselves when they would be part of a team in a centre. This must always be taken into account if choosing private surgeons and comparing prices for laps. Those who head private centres are likely to charge what may be a significantly higher price than independent surgeons but the first question to ask would be whether they would be operating with other accompanying surgeons as would be required in a BSGE centre or would they be doing all the private surgery themselves. If you should find yourself with severe disease and your particular surgeon is not involved with a private centre then this is what you should ask if you have the means to pay for private surgery and this is what you are thinking because you feel it is a better hospital. What matters is the team that would work together and in many instances on here I have come across women who have had laps done privately who would have had better care in a BSGE centre at an NHS hospital.

Thankyou for your really comprehensive reply. I'm lucky and have health insurance so cost is not an issue. Looking at it a bit more in depth (without naming names) it is a multidisciplinary team that my consultant has. My endo isn't too severe yet (although my pain would like to argue otherwise, I understand severity of endo and severity of pain don't always match up). Think I'll discuss with him how, if in any way, his clinic doesn't meet the bsge standards for my future knowledge, and do a bit more research myself.